The Baseball Encyclopedia will tell you that Jim Pagliaroni spent 11 years in the majors, hit .252 and had 90 home runs, with 10 or more in a season six times in his career.

He was signed by the Red Sox, traded to the Pirates, picked up by Oakland, and ended his career after the 1969 season with the Seattle Pilots.

But a player’s contributions, accomplishments and experiences don’t always fit on the back on a baseball card. Pagliaroni’s career may not have been played in the spotlight, but he was always near its glow.

For starters, Pagliaroni, who died a week ago at the age of 72 after a battle with cancer and heart problems, signed his professional contract before finishing his senior season at Wilson.

In 1955, he was one of the top prep players in Southern California, and the Boston Red Sox took enough of a liking that they signed him to what was then called a “bonus baby” contract, of $79,000, which was one the highest ever paid at the time.

One of the clauses was that Pagliaroni had to be put on the major league roster. So at the age of 17 years and eight months, making him the 10th youngest player in major league history (post 19th Century) at the time, Pagliaroni made his debut for the Red Sox and hit a scoring fly ball.

“He was an outstanding young player, very strong-armed catcher with good defense and some power,” said Harry Minor, a Wilson product himself and one of the legendary scouts in baseball. “Joe Stephenson, one of the premiere scouts at the time for the Red Sox, really took notice.”

Pagliaroni, 6-4 and 210 during his career, signed with the Red Sox in part because of the handsome offer but also because he idolized Ted Williams.

Which brings us to 1960, when Pagliaroni played his first full major league season in what would also be Williams’ last.

When Williams homered in his final at-bat at Fenway Park, he did not tip his hat to the crowd, which became the subtext for Williams’ entire love/hate career with Sox fans. But he did shake the hand of the on-deck hitter: Pagliaroni.

Pag, as he was known to his colleagues, told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2002 that he dropped his bat and cried, but pictures show him smiling as he grabs Williams’ hand.

“He was a great player and a gracious individual,” Pag said in the 2002 interview. “He helped me change my swing from being a dead pull hitter in 1960. I would catch behind Ted in spring training and you’d go to squeeze the glove because you figured you were going to catch the ball only to have Ted hit it. He had those great wrists and arms and could wait until the last split second to swing.”

In 1961, Pagliaroni hit a grand slam in an eight-run ninth for a win that was the Red Sox’s biggest comeback ever. In 1962, he caught Bill Monboquette’s no-hitter for the Red Sox. In 1965, he hit 17 home runs for the Pirates, still the most in a single season by any Pirates catcher. If he hadn’t been platooned so often, he probably would have had a few 20 home run seasons. He only played 100 or more games in a season three times.

In 1968, he caught Catfish Hunter’s perfect game with the Oakland A’s, and as a result also became a part of the Charlie Finley saga with the A’s.

“He was a class act guy,” Pagliaroni said. And when Hunter came down with ALS, Pagliaroni stepped up to help and joined the board of directors of the ALS foundation Hunter started.

It was in 1966 that Pagliaroni’s career took another turn. He was one of several players working on a budding union and labor contract – he was the official players rep for four years – and very involved in the decision to hire Marvin Miller as its boss.

He was also the players rep when the A’s sold him to the Seattle Pilots in 1969, which gave him another place in baseball history: The pages of Jim Bouton’s “Ball Four,” the book by the former pitcher that was the first peek into real life in the major leagues.

Bouton was pilloried by the establishment for telling tales, but the book was still a huge success in part because the Pilots were a sad sack expansion team that would last one year in Seattle before being sold to a man named Bud Selig, who moved the team to Milwaukee.

Pagliaroni is prominent in the book. Bouton felt he wasn’t used often enough, and Pagliaroni once told him “But you looked good warming up.” When the Pilots had a game moved up for TV and were told batting practice would be at 10:30 a.m., Pagliaroni said “Ten-thirty? I’m not even done throwing up at that hour.”

He also once described the date of a teammate by saying “She was kind of like Joe Torre with (breasts).”

Pagliaroni didn’t like catching Bouton’s knuckleballs and the book created a little bit of heat for everyone mentioned, but they remained friends, with him asking Bouton if he could play himself in the movie.

Pagliaroni and his wife Linda, who he met in middle school in Long Beach, moved to Grass Valley in 1963 and worked in food supplies, ran a winery, and a company that turned refuse into energy.

He was inducted into the Long Beach Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008. He may not have had a Cooperstown-like major league career, but he certainly had some Hall of Fame moments.